I tripped into a trap again — an advert trap. Sometimes I just click them to see what they are about. I’m a curious person, that’s what I do… But this time, I wish I hadn’t because what I have seen is making me angry.
So many people are talking about body positivity at the moment, about how we have to work together to end these superficial manors of ours and about how we have to stop making people feel bad about themselves — a good thing, in my opinion.
And then I stumble upon adverts that do exactly the opposite of that: I was looking through Instagram stories earlier and there a sponsored post popped up by some body coach (sadly, I got so angry afterwards that I swiped it away and I can’t remember the name anymore). He talked about a test to get to know your body type and to discover the needs of your body. I thought: well, let’s see what that is about and followed the link (as I said, I’m an advert victim sometimes). I completed the test and then the results made me furious.
The “test” — which was simply typing in my age, height, weight and activity level and a question about what I want to achieve regarding my body — was not what I expected and also very obvious. The possible answers to the last questions about the achievements were “I want to lose a lot of weight”, “I want to lose some weight and gain muscles” or “I want to get more toned because I’m already skinny”. But alright, I thought, let’s see what will be the outcome of this. I chose the last answer and got my “body type video message”. And the first thing this body coach tells me is how I will be able to lose more weight and tone my body so that I DON’T HAVE TO BE ASHAMED OF IT ANYMORE! ANYMORE! When did I tell you that I’m ashamed?
And that’s where I got angry! Because it immediately made me think that apparently, I HAVE TO BE ASHAMED OF MY BODY, the one I described to him before. With details that state that I’m perfectly alright regarding my weight. The data that I entered show that my weight is fine for my height (my body mass index is at the lower end of the normal weight area) and I told them that I’m skinny — AND HE TELLS ME TO LOOSE WEIGHT! That is so so wrong.
I’m not bothered personally by that as I know that I’m okay the way I am. But I’m scared and angry for all the people who don’t. There are lots of people, especially teenagers, out there that aren’t happy with themselves — which is probably why they end up on pages like the one with the test in the first place — and those fitness advisors make them feel even worse just to make money.
That has to stop. People must stop making money out of other people’s insecurities! Except if you are a therapist, then that is fine.
